Aleksandr Strukov

A photographer who worked with Navalny's headquarters in Moscow.
In January 2022, a case of public justification of terrorism and incitement to hatred was brought against him in connection with comments under posts in Znak.com media's Telegram channel. Strukov was detained after a search and taken into custody. Later it became known that a charge of offending religious feelings was also included in the case.
Strukov himself told OVD-Info that 'Kremlebots' were active in Znak.com chats where he wrote comments, provoking people into reciprocal verbal aggression. "They wrote anti-Semitic insults, insults against the Ukrainian people, calls for the destruction of the social group of Navalny supporters, people with liberal views. In simple words, there were just flame wars, swearing, and flooding in the chat. Seeing all the absurdity that surrounds us every day, all the injustice, it felt nice to let off steam in the evening by writing a couple of comments to these provocateurs," the photographer said.
In September 2023, it became known that one of Strukov's cellmates, a former mercenary of the Wagner Group, had offered other inmates a carton of cigarettes for beating the photographer. None of the 18 people in the cell agreed, but the fight took place anyway. After the incident, an operative suggested that Strukov to "move to the pre-trial detention centre No. 6 to do repairs there". This is a women's pre-trial detention centre, but according to lawyers, transgender persons and those prosecuted on charges of child molestation are held there.
On 3 November 2023, Strukov was sentenced to eight years in a general regime penal colony and a fine of 200,000 rubles. On 30 January 2024, the appeal court reduced the sentence by two months and the fine by 20,000. On 1 August 2024, the cassation court further mitigated the sentence by removing the fine, as the statute of limitations had expired under the article on offending religious feelings.
In May 2025, it became known that a new case of public justification of terrorism was brought against Strukov.

You can read more about politically persecuted people in the Telegram channel OVD-Info LIVE and our politically motivated criminal prosecutions in Russia database